Wisdom in the Dark

Chapter 6 - Myra

Myra crawled out of bed with no sense of urgency. It had just been her wedding the wake period before, she was allowed at least one morning to sleep in, even as leader of the Pyc Family, wasn’t she? She sat up in bed and stretched, allowing the blanket to fall off her naked body.

Then she remembered Jak.

Myra quickly pulled the covers over her body, only to discover Jak was gone. The single pillow and sheet where he had slept sat on the floor at the opposite end of her hut. When had he left? Where did he go?

Guilt suddenly washed over Myra, and she buried her head in her hands. i***t, Myra scolded herself. She could only imagine how she made Jak feel the night before. But neither her mind nor her body had been in a state to accept him. Every time she had tried to focus on Jak, images of Vlad appeared in her mind. Myra had been determined to be the strong leader her people needed; instead she had quietly cried herself to sleep, wishing her dead lover were there instead, hoping the man who was her husband hadn’t heard her.

What was done was done, though, Myra couldn’t change what happened the sleep period before. She could only move forward. Myra threw the covers off and hopped off the bed to prepare for the wake period.

Once cleaned up and dressed Myra strode confidently out of her hut and into the darkened Pyc Village to greet her people. But, where Pyc Family members were normally moving about on their tasks, the village was strangely quiet. Myra knew the merry making had been more wild than usual, but had the whole village decided to sleep in?

There was a cry from within Pyc Village, and Myra immediately darted toward it, hunting knife drawn from her belt – no to time go back inside her hut for a gun. Myra rounded a clutch of huts and spotted a group of her people gathered at the edge of the village. Had someone died? Had there been an attack? When?

“What’s going on?” Myra demanded, wading through the gathered Pyc villagers. “What wrong?”

Myra was brought up short by Jak standing straight, chest out, fists on hips. “Nothing’s wrong. In fact, it’s very good.”

At Jak’s feet was a small, brown animal with white spots lining its back.

“A deer?” Myra asked.

“I found it in a forest,” Jak replied.

Myra shook her head. “Did you have too much to drink last night? There are no forests on Callisto. There are no forests on any of the Jovian moons, outside of the greenhouse domes.”

“I saw it with my own eyes,” Jan said to her. “Trees about chest or shoulder height. Dozens of them, maybe more.”

“And there are more deer,” Jak added.

“But,” Myra fumbled over her words as she attempted to process what she was hearing. “But how? Where?”

Jak pointed to the northwest.

“We don’t go that way,” Myra’s cousin Ctik cut in, his tone harsh. “The Holowycz Village is that way.”

“We’re on bad terms with them,” Myra said. “They supported the Sebrle attacks on our village about fifty rotations ago.”

“I didn’t see any village,” Jak’s friend Ivan said with a shrug. “Did you?”

Jan shook his head. “There weren’t any man-made structures I could see.”

“How far did you go?” Myra asked.

Jak shrugged. “Two hours easy walk. Maybe more.”

“Didn’t you track the distance?”

“I don’t take any electronics with me when I hunt,” Jak replied. “The only technology I take is my bow and arrows.”

Myra looked down at the deer again. If what Jak said was true, that meant Callisto was supporting an ecosystem stronger than she and her people believed was currently possible. Myra doubted anyone else on Callisto knew about this forest and the fauna there, otherwise it would have been jealously guarded.

“I brought you this first kill in that forest as a gift to you, my wife,” Jak said. “Meat for the village’s tables.”

Cheers filled the air around Myra as the Pyc Family members celebrated Jak’s kill. While meat was available via the animals kept in the Pyc greenhouses, the idea of a surplus available from wild animals made even Myra a little giddy.

Myra looked at Jak. He seemed stronger, even more confident – if that was possible – and more attractive. It was his first day as her husband and already he had provided for not just her, but the entire village.

She walked forward and grabbed his hand. “Thank you, husband.” Then Myra closed her eyes and kissed Jak.

There were more hoots and hollers of joy. Myra felt Jak’s hand run up her back, and he pressed closer against her. She felt his heart thumping in his chest. Jak was warm, and Myra relished it.

Then Vlad’s face appeared in her mind’s eye. Myra pushed past the thought, and kissed Jak even harder. She had to. Jak was her husband now. The Pyc Village needed Myra to be strong. Vlad is dead, she told herself.

Myra broke the kiss. Jak was grinning from ear to ear. Good, Myra thought, as it should be.

“Can you show us where this forest is?”